It was revealed this week that a year before the Khashoggi killing in 2017, the CIA had plotted to kidnap or assassinate Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, who had taken refuge five years earlier in the Ecuador embassy in London. A senior US counter-intelligence official said that plans for the forcible rendition of Assange to the US were discussed “at the highest levels” of the Trump administration. The informant was one of more than 30 US officials – eight of whom confirmed details of the abduction proposal – quoted in into the CIA campaign against Assange.

"The CIA plot to kidnap or kill Julian Assange in London is a story that is being mistakenly ignored"

"This (Yahoo report) is a game changer going into the appeal because it shows the true nature, the true origins, the true criminality of the U.S. actions against Julian," his fiancee Stella Moris, with whom Assange has had two children, told reporters.

2021 December 10 // The US government wins its High Court bid to overturn the judge’s decision not to extradite Assange

2021 Jan. 4, - Judge Vanessa Baraitser concludes it would be “oppressive” to extradite him to the United States because of his frail mental health, saying there was a real risk he would take his own life.

2020 July // Ecuador revokes Assange's citizenship

2019 11 april // Taken from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, taken to HM Belmarsh Prison in London

2017 December // Ecuador grants Assange citizenship; US indicts Assange under seal for military leaks

2017 May // Swedish authorities drop all investigations into Assange; UK warrant for failing to appear in court still out

2012 14 June // The British Supreme Court rejects Assange’s final appeal and five days later he takes refuge in Ecuador’s embassy in London and seeks political asylum, which Ecuador grants in August 2012.